?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
ALBRECHT DÜRER Coat-of-Arms with a Skull.
Engraving, 1503. 215x154 mm; 8 1/2x6 1/8 inches. A brilliant, richly-inked and early Meder I a-b impression with particularly strong contrasts and no sign of wear, before the vertical scratch from the lowest arc of the helmet to the ground, and with burr on the tips of the wings, consistent with the earliest impressions of this subject. Trimmed on the plate mark with the narrow black border line preserved on all sides.
In this somewhat enigmatic memento mori image, Dürer (1471-1528) represents various materials--feathers, metal, foliage, hair, cloth and flesh--to tout his skill as an up-and-coming virtuoso in the art of engraving. According to Bartrum, "The figure of Death is here disguised as a wild man, the traditional German and Swiss mythological figure who is seen frequently in heraldic imagery of the period . . . The true identity of Death is revealed on the shield to the onlooker, but it is not recognized by the lady," (Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy, London, 2002, page 148). Bartsch 101; Meder 98.
